← Back to homeHypha International School
Sintra, Portugal · est. 2023 · Private
Illustration · Sintra
The school was founded in July 2023 by Jennifer Nava, an engineer and an international parent herself who wanted to join rigorous academics with a childhood in nature; it is now in its fourth year. It sits inside the Sintra natural park, in Colares, takes children from 3 to 11 and follows Cambridge International in Primary, while Pre-Primary joins the English curriculum with the Reggio Emilia, Montessori and Forest School approaches. Literacy is taught with Read Write Inc and numeracy with Singapore Math, with inquiry-based and project-based learning on top. The language of lessons is English: the school calls it its language of instruction itself, and all pages for parents, the admissions procedure and the answers to questions are written in English; all teachers are either native English speakers or hold English at C2 level. Portuguese runs as dedicated lessons, and physical education, music and art are taught in Portuguese too; no Portuguese is required at admission. Children spend at least three hours outdoors a day, rain included, and the school counts that as part of the programme rather than an addition to it. Classes hold no more than sixteen children with two educators. Assessment is continuous and low-stakes, with no big final tests, and no homework is set. Children bring no personal devices; computers appear from Year 4 and are provided by the school. The school's families come from more than twenty-one countries and over a third hold multiple citizenships. From 2027 the school opens Year 7 and adds one year group a year after that. The school says plainly that it does not suit everyone: families who want a strictly traditional school, or conversely complete freedom, are advised to look elsewhere.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Portuguese
Admissions The school says its families come from more than twenty-one countries and that over a third of them hold multiple citizenships; it calls families arriving from abroad its own and sets no minimum Portuguese-language requirement for admission. Applications are accepted throughout the year. The order is: a campus or virtual tour booked through the application portal, an application with school reports and assessments and a 50 euro fee, an answer from the school within one to two weeks, signed enrolment agreements and a 1500 euro enrolment fee, and the first tuition payment on 15 July. Primary takes children at the beginning of any term - September, January and April - and Pre-Primary in September and January. Children aged 3 to 5 may attend half-days at first with a lunchtime pickup, while parents stay on campus as the child joins forest school activities; the move into the classroom takes one to two weeks. The school welcomes children with different learning profiles and asks families to bring relevant assessment reports and specialist recommendations at admission.
Stages and year groups Grades Pre-Primary from age 3 and Primary up to Year 6. From 2027 the school opens Year 7 and adds one year group a year after that. The school sets no homework; the one thing it asks of a family is to read with or to the child for 15 to 30 minutes a day.
Address Rua Dr. Sá Carneiro 80, Colares, Sintra
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary · authorised programmeschool is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: Primary (ages 5-11). Primary is the primary stage, ages 5 to 11: English, mathematics and science to Cambridge syllabuses. At the end of the stage a school may run the optional Checkpoint test, which is marked in Cambridge.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school sits inside the Sintra natural park, in Colares. Children spend at least three hours outdoors every day, rainy days included. The school has its own swimming pool and, under an exclusive partnership, uses the União Mucifalense sports complex within walking distance: a full-size football pitch, an indoor gymnasium, volleyball courts, a gymnastics studio, a martial arts dojo and a yoga room. Children bring no personal devices; computers appear only from Year 4 and are provided by the school. There is no uniform. The school runs transport from Cascais and adds a route from Ericeira in September 2026, with central pickup and dropoff points and certified providers.
Clubs and activities: Swimming · Surfing · Robotics · Coding · Gymnastics · Violin · Piano · Taekwondo · Astronomy · Strategy games · Crochet · Gardening · Science club · Cooking · Construction club · Drama · Sensory play · Portuguese club
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: All teachers are fully qualified with several years of work either as homeroom teachers or in their specialist subjects. All are either native English speakers or hold English at C2 level. The school keeps training them in its curricula and approaches, bringing in recognised specialists from other countries.
Primary classes hold no more than sixteen children, with two educators in each classroom. From the 2026/2027 school year the school adds an Instructional Coach and Curriculum Coordinator who co-teaches, coaches, plans with the teachers and sequences the curriculum.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
✓Access control
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
✓Staff training
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school works under Portuguese law and Cambridge International requirements. Access to the school is carefully managed and controlled so that it knows who is on the premises at any given time. Criminal record checks are renewed every year, and new employees bring them from the countries where they worked before. First-aid trained staff are always on site. Conflict is handled within a Positive Discipline framework, and the school separates everyday conflict from bullying: small classes make difficulties visible early, and the school then acts decisively and together with the family.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)72 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data75 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data60 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 Value for money (6%) scored at the median52 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 7 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
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